CHAPTER 2- Initiation

CHAPTER 2- Initiation

Awestruck! That's the best way to describe how I felt after learning about the Primes. That, I was a Prime.  It was incredible, nothing short of a miracle, and weird. I really didn't know how to feel about every detail.  

Okay....  For instance, if we never die, but are reborn in an exact replica, aren't we still dead in the previous copy? What happens when we get old and die? Wait....  What would happen to a prime when they get old? These were questions I had, but in all honesty...  I wasn't hasty for an answer. 

"Bro, Bro" my brother said as he banged on my door. 

We were escorted to our rooms after the overwhelming welcome we got earlier....  a day ago. And Man! The room was other-worldly.  I was already adorned with a plain white robe, with an infinity insignia etched onto its shoulder.  My room was single, but multi-purposed.  With a single voice command, it could be a bedroom, parlor, bathroom, bar and so on. The possibilities of the room excited me. I got off my bed and walked to the door to meet my brother.

"Yo bro!" They are calling for us. 

As always, he was excited, seething. What was strange was the black robe he wore. Not that I cared though....  But….. Just but. 

We met up with our escort, and walked down a brightly lit corridor, with black cracks across the walls and floors.  Up close, the cracks resembled some sort of tree branch. The obsession with black and white was nauseating at that point. 

We walked past all sorts of creatures and people. I assumed they were primes... 

"Waaaaaiiit! Are those aliens?" My brother shouted! 

Our lady escort giggled... 

"Let me guess.  Your reality still questions if you are alone in the universe?"

"Yeah, I guess so" we both replied.

"Well....  For now, just know this. Life is reality's battery.  Without life, it couldn't exist... It’s vast, and to a point, infinite.  The problem you guys were yet to overcome was distance" She said as we approached a wooden,,,.... Liz...ard? 

It wore a black robe and had a wooden body with a red colour...  As in, red!  Finally, red! Its hands had three fingers each, with hooves for feet. You know what, as we got closer, it appeared to only have a lizard-like face, and deep green eyes.

“Master Prime Shrock, it’s a pleasure to see you”, said our escort.

“Yes, thank you.” It replied.

It turned towards us, and examined us with those weird eyes, like it could even see through.

“Are these the new ones?” It asked.

“Yes sir” she replied.

“Okay, I’ll take them from here”

I was frightened. One moment, I was with a human, talking and looking at different creatures walking by, like a visit to the zoo. The next, I was told to sit on a lion. What was I supposed to say to Sir Shrock? As in, when it turned its back on us, its neck was on fire, a flaming neck! Oh god! I wanted to wake up. My brain’s engineers were probably screaming and fainting, my mind blacked out. But what could I do? James looked very calm, so I had to be too.

We followed the thing, I mean, Master Shrock, quietly. 

“What are your names”, it asked.

“I am James, he is Jude” said my brother.

“Good,” he replied.

 The silence rose, not a word from anyone.  Walking with Master Shrock was tiring for me. Only if I had looked at James sooner, I would have gotten used to the silence.

“Why is your neck on fire?” he asked.

Shrock didn’t answer.

“Are you a man or a woman?” he asked again.

Oh father of Zachariah! I wanted the ground to swallow me up. How could my brother ask someone who looked like the descendant of Anubis such a thing? 

“Who cares about its gender, is the fire bothering him? Noooo!” I shouted in my mind as I awaited the worst, and gave my brother a very condescending look.

“Hmmmmmm, the flames are a part of me, a symbol of my race. As for my gender, I am both.”

“So, what do we call you?”

It turned back to look at us again.

“Considering your reality, refer to me in the male form” he said.

“Yes sir” we both replied.

James had a knack for laughing at tension. He just had a way of willing his mood into things. I loved that. I could finally look around me, and notice how all sorts of people and creatures gave way as Master Shrock passed. Some bowed and some greeted. I even spotted some that looked like him. Some weird Amoeba-ish rodent that ran passed with some items in its hand, some cat and dog-like creatures, and some jumbled up abominations. It was fascinating, a feast for the eye. What I could finally notice was the white planet-like drawing at the back of his robe, with dark branches emerging from within, cracking across it. It looked like the planet had veins.

The walk was long, but at last we arrived at our destination, a huge door.

“Now, boys, only speak when I ask you to speak,” said Shrock.

I gulped as the doors split apart, revealing a brightly lit hall. Half of the hall was black, and the other half was white. There were three high podiums on each half painted with the opposite colour. The black section had white podiums, while the white section had black podiums. The ceiling had an infinity sign etched into it, with circles embedded within its lines. The colour moved from white to black as it went from the black half to the white half of the hall. From each end of the room, doors appeared as six individuals stepped through. Three were clad in white robes, while the other three had black robes on. All had bold infinity insignias on the front. However, each symbol had a miniaturized version of the Master Shrock's emblem embedded in them, forming a pattern. 

It was now very obvious that these pictures were some sort of ranking.

“Shrock, welcome”

“Thank you, Lord Prime Arba”

You know, at that point I wondered why I could understand a rock like human speak.

“Is English that common?” I thought.

A circle suddenly appeared around us, cutting off a platform from the floor which hovered, and moved us closer to the Prime Lords. 

“How the heck do we understand you all?” My brother asked.

There he goes, after Shrock’s warning, he still went ahead and did what he wanted…. I was tired.

Shrock turned back to us as we approached the Prime Lords.

“First, young humans, do not disobey my orders again. Second, since we rescued you, your bodies have undergone certain modifications, which you will learn of as time passes”, he replied.

Omo! We kept shut and stayed still. James was rock like, only my father could achieve such a feat.

“Shrock, you are shrewd….. A little indulgence here and there isn’t bad, you know?” said a giggling smoke. 

It looked scary. It had no shape or form at all, just a dark smoke, with glistening lights within it. And at the top, a bright blue light that was shaped like an eye. The black robe just made it worse to look at.

“Hello, young humans, my name is……. Hmmmmm……. I think that will confuse you. Okay, refer to me as Adi”, it said.

“By the way, young James, I have no genitals….. My species is asexual.” It said, giggling.

“For a celibate species, you talk a lot, A-di” said Arba, who looked quite irritated.

Honestly, I couldn’t tell, his face was stiff, I had no way of knowing if he was angry, happy, or even tired. If he closed his quite normal looking eyes, he would not look any different from a boulder with edges. 

“Lighten up Arba, don’t be so hard,” Adi replied.

That made Arba quite angry, as he pushed back his white robe with a quick hmph!

“We are here to distribute these ones here to their class types, and you are both bickering. I know it’s impromptu, but still, hold back the violence.” Said another one. However, the robe’s hood was over this one’s face, and I couldn’t see anything beyond it. Then I realized that apart from Adi and Arba, everyone else was hidden within the robe.

The brooding atmosphere returned yet again. And the hooded Prime Lord in the middle moved forward a little to speak to us.

“Primes are a rare occurrence, a glitch in the system of time and space, and you boys are the second set of glitches in your reality. That is to say, amongst the trillions of life forms within your reality, you are both extremely unique, and that’s why you are here today.” 

Wow! Just wow, was all my mind could manage.

“And who was in the first set?” I wondered to myself.

“Oh! This one’s mind is quite active” said Adi, as I realized it could read it. 

The shock kept me still, as I noticed the seriousness of my situation. The uncertainty of what would unfold, and the sheer fear of what’s to become of us.

“I think we need to get back to the ceremony, Adi,” said the hooded prime lord.

“Now, as we are, we task ourselves with protecting life itself, from anything that seeks to destroy it, hence, destroy existence. With your awakening, your journey begins.”

The Lord Prime's platform moved back, as Adi’s moved forward. 

“Young James, your inert nature has been confirmed to be of Chaos; quick, free, wild, destructive, and much more tilted towards evil than good. You shall be joining the Chaos class, and train first with Master Shrock. You shall learn to bring chaos under control, and not yield to its dark nature. Chaos, if properly wielded, will never be evil, but will be an unstoppable weapon,” Said Adi with a serious tone.

 Arba’s platform moved forward as Adi’s moved back.

“Jude, yours is of Order; submissive, understanding, loving, caring, passive, weak, but much more good than evil. You will join the order class and train with……..”

“Yours truly….. The eloquent Master Sho” interrupted a buff black human with dreadlocks, who walked into the room.

“Eloquent and exceptionally la-te” said Arba

“Prime Lord Arba, I do apologize, but I was engaged with a top brass member of Finite” he replied.

“Was it successful? Did you capture the person?” Arba asked.

“Yes, she is being questioned by Master Toya” he replied.

The room went very silent.

“Arba, Adi, finish the proceedings, we need to speak with Toya as soon as possible, and see the assailant, face to face.” said the hooded prime lord from earlier, before they left in haste.

“Okay, like I said, young Jude, you will be training with Master Sho. You will learn how to kindle the force embedded in order, to instill its nature into your surroundings, and bring calmness to it. Order might seem weak and passive, but in the right hands it instills obedience, control and discipline,” said Arba, with a monotone at the end. 

We were guided to a circle at the center of the hall. We walked into it, and stood in it. 

“As their teachers, Shrock, Sho, instill your energy, and let infinity recognize them as protectors from this day.” said Arba, again with the monotone.

They stretched their hands forward as a dark and light energy twirled in sync around us, and eventually combined at the top. As they slammed into one another, they formed the most beautiful thing I had seen in my entire life. 

I had never been to space, but at that moment, I was breathing in space. The darkness flowed like an endless river, and as it passed, the light came forth, twinkling like a star. While the burst settled, more stars propped from within the dark void, forming a unique array of colours. At this point, I was lost in its infiniteness, and its splendor. Unfortunately, I watched as this beautiful view was swept away, as it ended.

“Speechless, right?” said Master Sho as he walked towards me. 

“I don’t know what to say, it was amazing”, I replied.

“Amazing….. hmm, now Jude, let me ask you, are you happy that it ended?”

“No, it felt wrong, sad, and unnecessary” I replied, with so much passion.

“That’s what I was looking for, kid. This thing we call life, should never end. It’s too beautiful to end. The need for its continuity gave birth to us. Sooooo……. Welcome to Order, I will be your master from today” he said, with the biggest smile I had ever seen on a man. To see so much joy in one person irked me so much, I cringed. But, at the same time, it was amazing and heart-warming.

My brother and I parted with our masters. I was really glad to be stuck with another human. I don’t think I would have said a word if I was stuck with Master Shrock.

“Shrock isn’t the freakiest thing you would meet here, you know?” said Master Sho.

“Do you guys read minds? How did you know what I was saying?” I asked.

He chuckled, “Isn’t that what class is for? Come on! You will know more soon enough. Just chill Jude, chill.”

Yes, Oh yes, Sho was definitely cool and a total cringe, a complete cringe source.

I anticipated what Master Sho had for me. However, it felt like I was just heading back to my room. I looked back and also saw Master Shrock and my brother not far behind. 

“Sir, aren’t we meant to go to the Order class or something like that” I asked.

“Oh, we definitely are heading there, don’t worry kid.” He replied.

And like that, we were in front of my quarters at the east end of the long walkway.

“Let’s get in,” he said.

“Wow, a huge flat screen television, and is that a game console?” he asked, with a hint of excitement.

“Yeah, it is a Playbox series R pro infinity edition”

“What the heck is that!? What type of naming sense is that?” he replied, laughing hysterically.

“Okay now, let’s get to class”. 

Then he said; “System, take us to the realm of infinity.”

I was back again in the void, in complete darkness, drowning. This time around it was sudden, fast, almost like death. I couldn’t comprehend my situation, and I struggled again, even though I had a sense of familiarity with this place. I tried to calm down but I couldn’t, I couldn’t. I swam as hard as I could to get to the surface, but I couldn’t. In my despair, a hand reached out to me. I grabbed hold, and was pulled towards a bright light, and at the end, I saw it; a force of lightning, thunder and fire.